The Sun Journal article of Jan. 18 concerning a legislative committee hearing on LD 1470 and the state’s 40-year Tree Growth Tax Law included an assertion from the executive director of the Small Woodland Owners Association that the practice of wealthy coastal and lakefront property owners using the program as a tax shelter “may be more perception than reality.”

What the article inexplicably omitted was testimony presented at the same hearing from nine municipal officials — people who know their towns and their landowners quite well — that the practice of using the Tree Growth Law to avoid paying property taxes is unquestionably a real and ongoing problem.

The Tree Growth Law was written so that people and companies with legitimate plans to harvest lumber from their properties get tax relief. That makes some sense because true Tree Growth properties require few municipal services. The law was not written so that landowners who have trees they never intend to harvest can save money on property taxes, thus shifting the local tax burden onto others.

Unfortunately, that practice happens. Municipal officials know it and they spoke about it at the hearing covered by the Sun Journal. Their views should have been included in the article of Jan. 18.

Eric Conrad, Augusta

Director of Communication and Educational Services, Maine Municipal Association